The Aging
by Korean Pearl
Summary: Maya has found the Animorphs and they are off on a crazy ride to Las Vegas. There they'll meet drunk college freshmen but hot ones, aging potions that increase your age for every hour you drink it and of course, casinos, Yeerks and murder.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Animorphs. Unlike almost everybody, I don't want to. I'm perfectly content writing fanfiction.

Please please please please please read Elemaki Chronicles, and then Nadar Chronicles I and then Nadar Chronicles II before you read this. They give you a lot more background info. And they aren't that long. Thanks! Just click on my name, Korean Pearl, and it'll take you to my site, so it's really easy.

**The Aging**

Chapter 1:

My name is Maya.

Or Mayanamar-Semitur-Aventa.

Take your pick. I don't really care which one you use.

Although for a human, "Maya" might be easier to pronounce.

Yeah, a human. I'm a human now, although I wasn't one, what, five years ago?

It's a long story, but I guess could I tell you. I don't really have anything better to do.

My mother was an Elemaki, a race considered inferior to the Andalites. She slept with an Andalite aritsh, Alloran-Semitur-Corass and they did get married although their marriage doesn't count by any legal standards. Of course, he left her for an Andalite female, and she gave birth to me and my twin brother. She died, my brother died, the Ellimist got involved, I got my morphing power, I found a way to Earth, I killed a lot of humans, and swam over the Pacific to California in dolphin morph.

Yeah.

You probably don't believe me, but I don't really care.

I don't really care about a lot of things. After a life like mine, you don't want to care.

Anyway, I had been tracking the Animorphs because I thought they were the Andalite bandits that the Visser kept babbling about. I found them, and joined up.

Although I don't really intend to stay. See, while I was in North Korea, I vowed to a girl who had taken me in that I would fight for Earth. I have to fulfill that vow, but other than that, no lasting commitments.

I was sitting in the barn with the other Animorphs, idly twirling my finger around a piece of hay as the others talked. I sneaked a glance at the Andalite who was working very hard at ignoring me.

Good. I wanted to annoy him, since I couldn't kill him. Jake wouldn't let me.

"So, ah, you're from Ax's home?" Cassie asked as she knelt beside me. I nodded briefly, and then said, "Although I don't consider it my home."

You are not worthy to have it be your home, the Andalite replied loftily.

I grinned mentally. This was the perfect time to start a fight.

"So you think I'm not _worthy_, is that it?" I said, leaning forward. "Should I tell your friends how worthy your planet is? Do you think they'd want to know?"

The Andalite looked warily around at the Animorphs with his stalk eyes. He knew what their reaction would be if I told them exactly how Elemaki were treated on the Andalite Home World.

But then again, he was an arrogant Andalite and would probably tell anyway.

Either way, I was itching for a fight.

I got up, smirking, an expression that I knew that he knew. "Want to fight, brave Andalite?"

His eyes flashed as he threw his tail blade forward, stopping right before my throat.

Just like yesterday, when I first walked into this barn.

Except this time I had a dracon beam with me.

I sneaked my hand down to the front of my skirt and whipped out my weapon, leveling it at the Andalite. "Hey, look at that, I could kill you right now. What do you think of that, a lowly Elemaki blowing your head off?"

His tail blade pressed harder into my throat. I would kill you as you killed me.

"And therefore rid the universe of another Elemaki filth," I finished, grinning my head off. And I could rid the universe of another Andalite.

Funny, really. I actually hadn't killed any Andalites, although I hated them much more than the humans I _had_ killed.

I saw the Andalite's eyes blaze with rage, and suddenly Marco was between us, tugging on the Andalite's tail.

An observation: Is he insane? You never tug on an Andalite's tail unless you're asking for him to remove your head.

"C'mon, stop it. When Rachel and I fight, we're just joking, but you look like you're about to kill each other," he said, as he put his hand over my dracon beam.

Another observation: You never put your hand over a dracon beam, unless you want your hand to disintegrate. And you never put your hand over a dracon beam wielded by a _Nadar._

Then again, he didn't know that I was a ruthless murderer. He didn't know that I was a serial killer who had killed an infant simply because his father had betrayed my adopted sister. He didn't know that I had burned men alive, and that I had watched as a man had drowned a three year old girl.

He didn't know that I was a Nadar, an accursed killer.

I reluctantly put my dracon beam, and the Andalite and I turned away from each other.

Till next time, I thought at him, and he didn't respond.

Probably decided I wasn't worthy.

I made my way back to the hay bale and heard Cassie sigh. Before I could ask her why, a hologram shimmered and an android stood in the doorway.

Two, actually. One was Jenny; my friend who I had recently found out was a robot, and her "brother" Erik.

"We've got information," Jenny said. "The Yeerks have a new project -"

"Don't they ever take a break?" Marco complained, cutting her off. "I mean, if I was trying to take over the world I'd take a vacation now and then."

"And how would _you_ take over the world?" Rachel asked, much too sweetly.

He flashed a grin. "Charm the world with my incredibly good looks, of course."

"What good looks?" she asked in the exact same tone.

He winced. "Ouch."

Tobias in the rafter fluttered a wing impatiently, and I turned my gaze towards him. The boy I had been with when my father had died…

No. No. It wasn't his fault.

I banished all thoughts of blame from my mind and turned back towards Jenny and Erik. Jenny glared at Marco for interrupting her, and then continued. "Anyway, I was _saying_, I'm only here because it has to do with Maya. Otherwise I wouldn't care."

"We love you, too!" Marco shot right back, in as a sarcastic tone as he could. I ignored him, and asked, "What about me?"

"You know how Cyndi was picked up by other foster parents last week?" she asked me. I nodded. "Well, they weren't really foster parents. This new project that the Yeerks are doing, well, they're going around and collecting all the young foster kids that they can. Then, they infest them, and do some experiment with them so that they grow older really fast – a year an hour, actually. They do this with young kids because once the kid is infested, if they do this experiment on them, they can't function without the Yeerk as long as they aren't left uninfested for more than three hours."

She paused, and Erik took over, explaining exactly how the experiment proceeded. I wasn't really paying attention though, I was just thinking, Cyndi, no, not another one.

She wasn't dead, but she was infested…

I got up to go, and Jake looked up. "Where are you going?"

I looked up. "I'm going to get her."

"We go as a group," he explained. "Besides, we don't have a plan, or anything."

"I don't need a plan," I told him. "I improvise. Besides, we don't have time. It's been a week. Wait." I turned to Jenny and Erik. "How do you know all this?"

Jenny hesitated, and then said, "We found out today, got all the information and came straight over. They've tried the experiment already, and it worked, so they're going to go around getting other kids. They want foster kids because no one really cares about them, and so won't be missed as easily."

I shook my head. "Not true. Mom'll care. She was planning a visit to Cyndi at her new foster home, and she'll know if something is wrong."

"You're mother's pretty unique," Erik commented, and then I knew that the experiment had been preformed on Cyndi.

"Sit down," Jake ordered, and with a stoic face, I went back to the bale of hay.

He _was_ my Prince.

Erik continued. "After a couple brain operations, they give a potion to the kid while they are infested. The Yeerks actually didn't know it would make the host completely catatonic while not infested – that was just a side affect that happened to work out better for the Yeerks."

Cassie interrupted as he stopped. "Where are they doing this at?"

Neither of the androids answered.

"Well?" I asked. "Where are they? Quit making faces and just tell us."

"Las Vegas."

**Review Responses**

I'm back! School ended, and I will be updating chapter after chapter after chapter. One thing, actually, this would have been posted a lot earlier today, but everything on my palm pilot got deleted. I had three chapters there, and they're all gone. So I'm rewriting them from memory. Oh well, who cares, school is over!

custardpringle – Eamon's coming up! Oh! All my stories got deleted so I'm mad at my palm pilot, but oh well, I remember it kind of!

Anonymous-cat – Yup, Maya is moving on. I'm gonna try to tie in the humor of the Animorphs with Maya's "darker side"… we'll see how I do. This first chapter was more of another transition chapter, but the next few chapters will have more plot. And about Maya trying to help them, she takes vows seriously. Also, Eun-hee was the only one who ever opened up to her and loved her after her mother and brother died. She was willing to help Earth for Eun-hee alone. And about accepting Andalites, that's a major theme that will continue in these Animorphy style books and Nadar Chronicles 3 and beyond! And you're exactly right, most people do just add the character at the point of the Animorphs, and that happens all the time in fanfics. You know my pet peeve for not being cliché, so I gave her a life outside of the Animorphs. And thanks for staying with me this entire time – I've a lot left to go through yet! And you're right, I can't comment on anything on that review for the first chapter, but all questions will be answered by the time I'm done. Except for the part about Prince Jake… well, I'll bring that up later. See ya!

DH L'Orange – I'm glad you like this way better than the construction site, like I was telling A-cat, I hate doing things cliché, and so I wanted to do it a new way. And about that drifting off scene, I was actually in a museum when I wrote that – I was in a writing mood, and so I wrote that with the intent of putting it in a story like this. Except I was in that museum about a year before I started writing. Anyway, I'm glad you think that's good. And about Ax, she's just calling him "the Andalite" right now. I might give him a nickname, that'll happen when I get the plot moving. Yeah, I thought that would be neat to have Maya say no, I'm not joining you because that was more her. And I wrote up something to add to that part to make it seem more realistic, her joining them, one sec, let me go look for it… ok here it is:

Watching these humans for three days as they talked – they cared so much about Earth!

Like Eun-hee. Like Anna. Like Daddy. Like everyone who had stopped in their lives to give me a hand up, to look at me with love.

What was it about these humans that led them to fight against such incredible odds, that they would never give up, or that five kids would even entertain the thought of fighting a force that could and by all rights, would, wipe them out?

I didn't know, but I was going to find out.

After all, I was stuck here on Earth, and I did have to fill my vow to Eun-hee and Anna – why not?

Three days later I became an Animorph.

I hope that helped some!

Hesser – very funny Becky.

Tabatha – thanks! I hope you get this at camp. Glad you liked the intermingling between the Animorphs and Maya. And Ax and Maya will have more rubbing together later on. See ya!

RandomPirate – I hope this helped your Ax and Maya interaction craving. I'm getting the impression that lots of people want to have Maya and Ax together. If that's what I'm supposed to infer from your review, anyway. smiles And there will be more, Gollum!

A fan of animorphs – yeah, that part of my story has nothing to do with animorphs, but this part does, so if you keep reading, you'll get there!

Hell-Flame-Narf – no, that's not the end, just the end of that part. I've got a long left to write, and here's the next part!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Las Vegas! Marco screeched. You know how long I've wanted to go to Las Vegas? And now I'm going as a _bird_!

Shut up, Rachel responded. You've been moaning about going to Las Vegas for the last hour.

We were flying in the air in our bird of prey morphs, about a mile from each other. I was struggling to keep up with them in my smaller merlin morph, pumping my wings at what seemed a million times per minute.

Relax, Tobias called to me, as he swooped down. You're working too hard. Let the bird mind take over.

Reluctantly I released partial control to the bird's instincts, and then snatched it back when I dropped several feet. No. I can't trust the bird.

Well, you can't keep up if you don't relax, Tobias said reasonably. You'll tire yourself out. Just let it take control.

I tried again, and this time held a grip on my fear at not having Control at bay. I did fall, but my wings held, and the bird and I swept forward on a thermal.

I'm doing it! I said, actually genuinely happy for once at my success.

Good job! Keep it up, Tobias encouraged as he swept forward, scouting the way.

So what is Las Vegas like? I asked Cassie, curious as to why Marco kept talking about it.

Well, to tell you the truth, I don't really know, she responded in her gentle way. I know that there are a lot of casinos there, though. Do you know anything about it, Ax?

Why would _he _know? I asked Cassie in private speech. _I've_ been here longer than he has.

I know, she said. But, he reads a lot of random stuff, so he might know.

Well, I know that the man who created the Federal Express company did not have enough money to start his company, so he went to Las Vegas and gambled all his money for exactly twice the amount. He received the money and was therefore able to start his business.

Where did you read that, randomfacts.com? Marco asked dryly.

No, the Andalite responded seriously enough. I read it in a book, not a website.

The others thought-laughed, but I remained quiet. The Andalite may be a fool, but I would not allow myself to find anything _good_ about him.

Tobias called back, There's a cloud layer ahead, so you're going to have to do some heavy flapping!

We entered the thick fog, and I slowed down even more as we bumped our way through.

This is stupid, I said suddenly. We're never going to get to Las Vegas this way. It's like what, four hours to Nevada?

Jake asked, What else would we do?

Drive.

Half an hour later we were speeding down the interstate – I-15, to be exact – in a stolen limo.

Two hours later, we were still driving.

"We stole it," Cassie said firmly, arms across her chest. "And you don't have a license."

"Relax," I told her. I was in a morph I had acquired on the streets, complete with false ID and a driver's license, made by one of the "allies" we had made on the street. He specialized in false ID's, and in return for sleeping with Anna, he had made one for my morph.

Of course we ran off as soon as he made the ID, and it wasn't like he could call the police on us.

"I have ID," I continued. "Besides, it's from a car rental place. We'll return it. It's like we're renting it, except without the paper work."

"And the money," she commented dryly.

"Yeah, that too," I conceded.

"Besides," Rachel added, "We are saving them from the Yeerks."

"Who cares?!" Marco exploded. "It's a limo! We even have enough room for Ax to demorph!" Jake laughed as well, unable to hide his excitement at getting a ride in what I guess was a car for "rich people."

Then again, they were all rich compared to the kids on the street.

"That's just like soldiers claiming that they're defending villagers and then seizing their food," Cassie complained, and her words froze me.

On the Andalite Home World, soldiers didn't seize food since they could just walk on it, but they raze and burn and rape and kill…

And I again was the tortured Elemaki running from the flames as they leapt around me, devouring my mother and hungrily eating up the grass behind me…

"Maya!" four voices shouted and I looked up to see that I was about to hit an eighteen wheeler. I swerved out of the way, and instead rammed through the metal guardrail that was the only barrier between us and the river.

We were going down…

The limo plunged down faster, and I could hear Marco screaming, "We're gonna die!!" while Jake ordered, "Morph trout!" The Andalite was saying, Incompetent Elemaki! and quickly, I thrust open my car door. Tobias flew out, feathers fluttering in my face as I realized I had been this man for over two hours.

Oh well. I had my morphing ring that allowed me to stay in one morph for longer than two hours still on, and so I could morph directly to salmon, since I didn't have a trout morph. I'd just have to leave my stolen clothes here in the river.

We crashed into the river and then filed out of my open door.

Ok, everyone all right? Jake's thought-voice sounded. We all gave various noises of assent and then a fish turned to me.

Maya, what happened? asked Jake.

I drifted off, kind of, I guess, I answered, not really sure of what had actually happened.

You drifted off while driving on the highway.

I started to give a shrug and rolled over. Oh yeah, I was a fish. Yup.

Um, ok. Marco, of course.

We continued on, and I got the impression that I wouldn't be driving again.

I directed my thought-speech to Cassie. I guess we can't return the car. Sorry about that.

I knew we wouldn't, she responded, and for a flash I saw her in her desperate and seemingly hopeless struggle to keep to keep the Animorphs from becoming Nadar, from becoming so cold that they would kill innocent life and call it a sacrifice for the cause of the war against the Yeerks.

Keep them from becoming like me.

Solethi, the first Nadar I had met on the Andalite planet, had told me that part of the duty of being a Nadar is to make sure that no one else becomes a Nadar, that if anything horrible were to happen, then the Nadar should arrange it so that it should happen to them.

At first I didn't get it, but after living, after seeing Nadar, after seeing Oscar, and the street kids, I realized why. If we, the Nadar, opposed each other…

A war, with both sides having no morals, no ethics, just a bloodlust and a burning desire to kill.

Yes, it would be better if there were less Nadar.

I'll help you, I offered impulsively.

Thank you, she said, and I knew she understood.

So, anyone want to tell me more about Las Vegas? I asked in open thought-speech.

Tobias answered from the sky somewhere. Las Vegas is famous for its casinos, like Ax said about that story of the dude who started Fed Ex. It also has some crazy places, like this Zumanity thing, or I'm not sure if that's exactly right. Anyway, it's were a whole bunch of people strip down and wear body stockings or something and do this dance.

Interesting, I commented.

Sorry, I don't know a lot about it, I just saw a show on the weirder things of Las Vegas once on TV, he confessed. There are a lot of bars, I know, and also it's a honeymoon favorite. And also, there was this part about the places you can get married in Las Vegas. You can get married by Elvis Presley, or aliens, and weird creatures like that.

Yeah, because Elvis was such a weird creature, I responded, and Tobias laughed. I continued, I don't know much about Elvis Presley or any of your weird musicians. I was concentrating on survival when I first landed.

Oh, yeah, I had a question about that, actually, he said. Mmm? I prompted.

How do you stay in your human morph for so long? he asked, and I could sense a hint of eagerness in his voice.

Oh yeah, he was a nothlit. And didn't want to be.

How to explain? It was a long story, and I didn't really feel like spilling my guts to these Animorphs.

Ellimist, I settled on. A little inaccuracy saves a whole ton of explanation. I started to explain who he was, but Tobias cut me off. I know him. He visited us once.

Tobias told me about his visit, and then went on to describe their missions before I had come. I knew the basics about the attacks since I had read the Yeerk reports, but obviously I didn't know about the planning, the feelings, and the emotions that went behind them.

We continued on the river for the next hour towards the city that Tobias had painted in my mind as a city of lights, casinos, sex, and bars.

**Review Responses**

I told you once summer started I would update more! Again, I'd have like four chapters up my now if my stupid palm pilot hadn't deleted all the stories on me. Ah, sigh, that is life. And this chapter is dedicated to DH L'Orange, the only person who reviewed my first chapter before I posted the second one! I hope to get the third chapter up tonight as well, but I might not be able to. Anyway, onwards!

**DH****L'Orange**– Thanks for reviewing so fast! I'm back online, and believe me, that's all I've been on since school ended at 11:30 this morning. That and watch old Disney movies and read fanfiction and fictionpress, and write. All my favorite activities! Anyway, your review. I'm glad you liked the Maya and Ax interaction, like I told somebody last time, I was going to put that when they first met but remembered that she had morphed to get there, and so couldn't have a dracon beam. But now she does, because she got there an un-morphy way. And you're right about the potion thing. I was thinking chemical potion, like stuff you mix in a lab, but I'm taking chem next year – after the summer's over! – so I'm not sure of the terminology. I had them take a pill at first, but then changed my mind. A pill is too contact, to sure of its ability to work, while potions have more room for error. And I'm gonna play with that about Tobias and Maya, because she did love her dad, and as humans, or as "sentients" we always try and find someone to blame. And Cassie… well, Maya's keeping her identity a secret for a while, so Cassie doesn't know. Somehow I'm getting the impression that you don't like Cassie very much… but that's just me. I have no preference to the characters actually, maybe Tobias. And whoops about the Erik/Erek thing. I usually spell it Erek, but I think I read in a fanfic somewhere that it was spelled Erik so I thought my memory was wrong and that it was spelled in a special way. Thanks for telling me! And glad you liked the explanation I wrote out. This is a quick update if I ever saw one! See ya!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

We were walking around Las Vegas in swimsuits and bike shorts, and although we didn't stand out, we didn't fit in either.

So we were looking for a store that would sell clothes to us. Except for the small fact that we didn't have any money, so we were debating over whether we should steal money, or act as acrobats and earn money.

"Well, if we did want to do gymnastics to get money, only I should try and do anything since the rest of you would probably break your necks on this pavement," Rachel informed us.

I resisted the urge to tell them that if they tried to steal any money they would most certainly be caught.

Let's move, I said silently to them all. Let's go. Let's get out of here. Let's not stand in the middle of the street and discuss how to gain money to buy clothes so we don't look like freaks so we can then stand in the middle of the street discussing how to get underground to this new mini-pool that these Yeerks have apparently built under this city to grab tourists as well as foster kids.

They stared at me.

"I hope you said that to us privately," Jake said in not-quite alarm.

I nodded.

We were wandering around, when Cassie came up to me.

"Maya, are you feeling ok?"

I looked at her. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know," she responded. "It's just that whole incident with the limo, and how you drifted off…"

I cut her off. I could deal with my own problems. "I'm fine."

She hesitated for a moment, but didn't push.

We continued walking through Vegas, looking for a clothes store while Tobias kept in kind of contact with us.

Ok, so he bothered us every other second about where we were since he couldn't see us, and how we were in an inner city and any hawks here would be pets on arms, not flying around free.

Where are you now?

Jake whispered to the Andalite, "Tell him we're near that neon sign."

A moment later Tobias responded with, There are a million neon signs. Which one?

"Tell him it's the one next to the picture of a huge beer bottle."

Ok, gotcha.

I stared up at that giant beer bottle, and that same creepy neck-tingling _knowledge_ hit me.

I walked into the bar following that Nadar instinct that I knew would lead me somewhere.

I looked around, and then saw a glimpse of a curly head in a far corner.

Rushing over, I shook the drunk by the shoulder, and he lifted his face up, giving me a clear view of his face, glasses askew.

Eamon.

"What's wrong with you?" I hissed.

He muttered something about his girlfriend dumping him and then his head drooped down towards the table again.

I noticed that the others were around me, and at the same time, Tobias asked, What's going on?

"My brother," I whispered. "I found my brother and he's _dead_ _drunk_."

I grabbed him and tried to pull him up, but I wasn't strong enough, and Eamon slumped back down. Jake and Rachel helped me, and the two of them lifted Eamon up and supported him through the bar and out the door.

Ok, so it was more like drag. Eamon _was_ really drunk.

We walked outside, and I pulled Eamon's wallet out of his pocket and checked it out. Ok, he didn't have that much cash, but he had a MasterCard, and some other credit cards that I didn't recognize. I put it back in his pocket as Rachel and Jake continued dragging Eamon down the sidewalk, now in search of a clothing store.

Hey, guys? Oh, I see you now!

"That's great, Tobias," I muttered.

Could I come down? I see some other hawks and they look like pets so I would blend in and I'm really really tired of not being able to keep track of you.

Jake grunted his assent from under Eamon, and so Tobias spiraled down and landed on Marco's head.

Hold still, he ordered. I can't get a grip on your hair.

"You're messing up my hair," Marco said loudly, attracting stares from the bystanders.

"Marco, you have a hawk on your head, and I am dragging a college freshman who is dead drunk, and as a result, extremely _heavy_, down the sidewalk," Rachel hissed. "_Quit complaining._"

Cassie held out an arm and Tobias willingly stepped onto it, leaving a very grateful Marco to doctor his hair.

Thanks. It was getting really annoying up there.

"Up in the sky or on my head?" Marco muttered, and Tobias turned his fierce hawk glare at him.

"Ax, stop looking back at Tobias as if he were talking to you," Jake ordered through gritted teeth.

"But he is talking ing to me. Me. Eeeh. Prince Jake. Ake."

"Don't play with mouth sounds and don't call me Prince," Jake automatically responded. "And for once, just _try_ and act like we're a normal bunch of kids."

"But we are not. Tttt. Normal. Al."

I think we all groaned.

About ten minutes later, and about ten minutes too late, I added, "But he's a good looking college freshman."

Rachel gave me a withering glare. "What are you talking about?"

"What you said. That you were dragging a drunk college freshman down the sidewalk, and I said, he's a good looking college freshman."

They all turned to look, and Rachel and Jake dropped Eamon, completely ignoring him as he fell.

"Man, dead drunk people are heavy," Jake commented as he rubbed his shoulder.

"That's because they are like dead, you know, they're completely relaxed," explained Marco as Rachel exclaimed, "Oh, this store is perfect for getting light beach ware, I've been to these stores before!"

I looked up at the fiftieth neon green sign that we had passed. Marco voiced my opinion when he complained, "What's with all these neon lights? Couldn't they have picked another color?"

"No," the Andalite began explaining. "Neon is a noble gas, and - "

"Ok, I get it, thanks for the lesson Ax," Marco cut in, rolling his eyes.

"Where's the money?" Rachel demanded, turning around.

We pulled Eamon to a bench by the store, and then I handed his wallet to Rachel. "Try not to go crazy."

"You're going with her," Jake told me. "I don't want her to get distracted by a _perfect sale_."

I shrugged. "But I don't mind shopping."

Jake turned to Cassie, who shook her head resolutely. "No. Besides, I have to hold Tobias."

Marco started to point out that anyone was capable of holding Tobias, but she shot him a look saying, you want me to put him back on your head?

He shut up.

In the end, I ended up with orders from Jake to keep Rachel from buying the store out, and if we weren't back in fifteen minutes he'd send the Andalite after us.

I bit my tongue, but I really did want to make some sarcastic comment about how I was _so _scared.

"Oh, look!" Rachel said as she bounced from one clothes rack to another. "Only twelve dollars with discounts – it's perfect!"

I followed her, checking out usable clothes that didn't stand out too much. "How about this?" I asked, pulling out a mauve skirt and a forest green t-shirt.

Rachel looked at me, and shook her head. "First of all, purple and green do not match. Second of all, they are both patterned. You never wear two patterned pieces of clothing at the same time."

"I usually just wear jeans and a t-shirt," I explained, while I hung them back on the rack.

"Well, if you don't mind me pointing out, you really have no style. But at least you don't do it on purpose – sometimes I'm convinced that Cassie dresses the way she does just to drive me crazy."

I fought a smile, as I pulled out another pair, long cacky shorts and a black t-shirt. "What about this?"

"Much better. See, what you need are some staples," Rachel started, and I got the feeling that she was about to give me what she considered a valuable shopping/matching clothes lesson.

"Like rice and potatoes?" I asked, almost sarcastically, but Rachel nodded enthusiastically.

"Yes, yes! Cacky is a must have, and so is a black skirt, black pants, shorts, whatever. They go with anything."

I nodded, and indicated the clothes I had in my hand. "So these are ok?"

"Yes, they're fine. And -" she studied me for a minute. "They work well with your coloring too."

"They make me look normal?"

Rachel studied me again. "Well, to look completely normal, you should dress with clothes that match, and try wearing some makeup. You don't have to coat your face or anything, but just a little stuff." She paused for a moment and then asked, "Why do you want to look so normal?"

I told her the truth plainly and honestly. "I stick out because of my background from the street, from North Korea, and from the Andalite Home World. I am an alien here, literally, and the more I look like regular Americans, the less people will remember me."

And then I noticed a woman watching us intently with bright eyes.

Much too intently.

**Review Responses**

**DH****L'Orange**** – **Again, this chapter is dedicated to you for your timely review. It's two in the morning right now – hey, I told you I would write a lot more with summer! It would have been sooner except this time I was watching Fiddler on the Roof while trying to write, so I took long breaks. And now your review. First off, I added that thing about Cassie in this one! Sorry! It was in my original script in my palm pilot, but I forgot it until you mentioned it. And true, they might not have wanted to go along, but Las Vegas is four hours away from San Diego, which is where I'm placing them simply because I need them to be _somewhere_ – I looked it up on mapquest. So if they took a bus, they'd have to deal with Ax's demorphing time, as well as where Tobias would go. Yeah, a limo would be suspicious, but I felt that they would think that the risk was worth it. And about Maya in control, I actually am going to play with that theme. Maya is used to being the leader, or at least by herself, so she's going to have a wake up call. For now she listens to Jake because he is a good leader and he is doing what she would do, but when she wants to do things her way… Let's just say, as my sister says, SPOLIER (KIND OF) WARNING that Maya is just as arrogant as Ax in her own little way. And sorry about Rachel – that's my biggest problem in these new fics. I'm bad at writing for so many characters and giving them equal footing to the point that I even forget sometimes to include them. It's almost like I have to run through them in my mind to get who would be in what. I do need to work on that, and if it turns out I'm terrible at it, I'll simply make stories where the group splits up to do missions, and work with less characters. And by all means, you are not complaining. You are giving me constructive criticism, and you are so incredibly good at it. I use your comments to touch up my writing and to fix things all the time. Please continue – that's why I love your reviews so much!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

Rachel, I said, grabbing her attention. Is that woman over there staring at me because I look funny, or because of what I just said?

Rachel looked me up and down and decided. "The latter."

Yeerk then.

I marched over to her and bowed slightly. "Good to see you Sub-Visser 57."

Her brow wrinkled in confusion. "Oh, I'm not a Sub-Visser; I'm just Hieseth 345 of the Sulp Niar Pool."

I forced a blush of embarrassment, and apologized to her before turning back to Rachel.

"Wait," the Yeerk called after me. And then, almost as if thinking aloud, "You're not a Yeerk – you're from the Andalite Home World, filth!"

Dumb. That was extremely dumb.

I turned on her with such force that she stepped backwards, eyes wide with fear. Punching my open hand into one of her floating ribs, I broke the rib in such a way that it came loose and pierced her heart.

She died on the floor of the store, eyes still open, face contorted with fear.

I reviewed in my mind where I had left fingerprints, wiped them away with my sleeve, and then wiped Rachel's away too, for good measure. I had only touched the woman with the base of my palm, so no marks would be left there.

I turned to face Rachel.

"You killed her with one blow," she said, impressed.

I stopped and stared at her, this middle class American who was impressed when someone killed well.

It was already too late to keep Rachel from being a Nadar.

We need to get out of here, I told her, and then looked down at the Controller. It _would_ be good to have a Controller morph.

I touched her with the tips of my fingers and acquired her rapidly, and then wiped away those prints as well.

I snatched some clothes, stepped in the dressing room that luckily no one was attending, and morphed the Controller, putting on my new clothes. When I came out, Rachel also had put on some clothes, and we walked to the cash register to pay for the other kid's clothes with Eamon's money.

I knew I had promised Cassie to keep the other Animorphs from becoming Nadar, but Rachel already was one.

And anyway, who cared? I knew stealing was wrong, but I did it anyway. I wasn't going to deny that practically all the things I did were wrong – I was just going to work myself into a state of indifference about it.

"Fourteen minutes and fifty-four seconds," the Andalite announced when we walked out but stopped when he saw me.

It's ok, I told them. It's me, Maya. I found a Controller who heard me talk about being an alien so I had to kill her.

"It was really cool," Rachel told them, not noticing Cassie's quiet eyes accusing me. "She punched out with one hand and the Yeerk just died."

"You mean the _human_ just died," Cassie interjected.

"Guys, let's learn a lesson from this," Jake said, not-quite-sardonically. "_Don't_ _talk_ _about_ _our_ _mission_ _in_ _public_."

We retreated to the bench where Eamon was at after the others dressed and discussed what to do next in code.

Jake says code for Yeerk pool is the ice cream shop, Tobias announced to us, and I saw Jake nod in agreement.

"So," he started, "There are two entrances to the ice cream shop."

I was slightly distracted when a car pulled up and a man pulled out, calling "Hieseth?"

The Yeerk.

I cut Jake short, explaining that the man was calling for the woman I morphed. I started to tell him what I was going to do, and then realized I had no freaking clue _what_ to do.

But Jake did.

"Marco, get in here and morph flea," he ordered as we tightened up around us. Marco obeyed instantly and when he was done, Jake told me to tell him to hop onto me.

Marco, you're hitching a ride on me, I said, and barely saw a flea hop onto my arm. Get on my head, I ordered. I don't accidentally want to kill you.

Yeah, I wouldn't mind staying alive either, he responded as he hopped up.

While Marco and I had been talking, Jake had a plan set and ready to fall into place. "Ax, you go with Maya -"

Bad idea, Jake, Tobias interrupted. They don't get along well, in case no one has noticed.

Jake cocked his head at us. "They won't compromise the mission, and they need to learn how to work together."

"Yes, Prince Jake," I said with just a hint of sarcasm in my voice. He waved me off, ordering, "Go towards the wedding place things. That's the first entrance. Rachel, Tobias, Cassie and I will find another entrance."

I nodded, and then said, Act like you're trying to steal my purse so I can run you off. And so I can have an explanation as to why I don't have my purse which I left on the dead body inside the store.

Five seconds later I was screaming, "You stupid kids! Give me back my purse!"

They kept running, as the man came up to me and said, "Hieseth, I've been looking for you."

I turned. "Oh, it's you. What is it now?"

"The Sub-Visser wants to see you."

I made my face go pale. "What does the Sub-Visser want?" I asked, careful not to attribute a gender to this Sub-Visser.

The man shrugged. "I don't know, I'm just supposed to drive you there."

I indicated the Andalite in his human morph. "He's coming with me; he need's a ride to the Pool."

The Andalite didn't say anything, as Jake ordered, but just nodded.

We turned to go when I remembered.

Eamon.

I couldn't just leave him there. Drunk, and alone, and with money, he was asking to be mugged.

Besides, he was my brother, for whatever that counted for.

I jerked a thumb towards Eamon. "Help me bring him. He was out playing his host's part and when they started to drink, he had to do the same."

I was so glad I was good at lying.

We pulled Eamon off the bench and put him in the back seat with the Andalite. I climbed in the front seat, and we took off in silence.

Marco, are you there? I asked.

Yeah. What are we doing now?

We are driving. The Andalite's voice in my head startled me and I realized that Marco must have directed his thought-speech to both of us.

For a moment I was furious at his intrusion, and then I reined in my rage. I had to keep Control, no matter what.

We hit a bump and my knee hit the glove door box, which opened, revealing a cache of dracon beams.

Without thinking – or thinking so quickly it seemed to not have occurred – I grabbed one and shot the guy straight in his chest. His torso disintegrated, and I thanked whoever controlled the universe that the windows were tinted.

You can demorph now, I told Marco and he obligingly hopped off and became Marco in the back seat.

"I'll acquire and morph that dude," he offered, and reached over to acquire his remains. Marco and I switched seats as he acquired, morphed, and took the guy's pants and put them on himself, and then finished off the guy's legs with another dracon beam.

A car behind us honked, and I beat Marco to the driver's wheel.

"Uh, uh, Maya, no way you are driving," he told me while I pushed the gas pedal.

"Relax," I ordered, and he made a face, responding, "That's what you told Cassie last time before you drove us into a river."

I stuck my tongue out at him as the Andalite expressed concerns at my ability to operate this vehicle, and I told him to shut up.

He wasn't very pleased, but Marco calmed him down.

"I don't have a shirt," Marco told me as we left the car ten minutes later. I had tried to parallel park, and had been unable to so we left the car halfway out of a parking spot, still running. We didn't need the car anymore, so might as well leave it so that some poor bloke could steal it. Eamon was still drunk, so Marco was supporting him.

"Nice observation," I responded, and he rolled his eyes.

We sneaked into the first chapel like building to see an Elvis Presley look-alike marrying a blonde woman to another man.

"Holy -" Marco started, but I stopped him, hitting him over the head while managing to avoid slapping Eamon.

"Don't curse," I ordered. "It's for fools."

"Hey, I never claimed to be smart," he protested, rubbing his head.

"I pity the human race," I shot back. "An idiot wants to save them from an alien invasion."

"Prince Jake's instructions were that at we were not supposed posed to talk alk alk about the mission shion aloud," the Andalite told us sternly.

We looked at him. "It'd be a little less obvious if you didn't talk," Marco informed him, explaining that most humans didn't play with words so much.

As if the Andalite didn't know.

We looked back at the wedding, and then Marco pointed at the woman. "Is that Britney Spears?"

I looked at her. "Who is Britney Spears?"

"You don't know who Britney Spears is? _Britney Spears_. You _don't_ _know_ who she is?"

I left him with Eamon babbling about not knowing who Britney Spears was and walked over to the next chapel. He and the Andalite followed, of course, while Marco switched his track to complaining about how heavy Eamon was.

But all his complaints stopped when he peered into the next chapel with me.

A couple, who was obviously very drunk, was getting married by a Hork-Bajir.

**Review Responses**

Hurray! More reviews! I will respond!

Hey – I'm hungry. Let's go make lunch. And then I have to mow the lawn.

Hell-Flame-Narf – Yup! I'm back. I'm sorry school hasn't ended for you yet. Here's another chapter!

Birdie num num – Here's a soonish update… and the woman is a Yeerk, so she is crazy. Also, Maya's half-Korean, remember? She did a Forsil Manouver with Anna and Eun-hee's morphs. checks back to make sure she wrote that Yeah I did. Ok, anyway, thanks for your review!

Digimon/Teen Titan Lover 276 – Thanks! I'm glad you like my story. I know you reviewed Nadar Chronicles II, but if you continue, you'll get to this one. See ya!

A note from the beta: We are angry.  We have noticed that the chapters are getting shorter.  We are most definitely not amused, and if you do not rectify this situation, we will never cook spaghetti for you ever again.  Are we clear? Thank-you.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

Marco, the Andalite and I stared as the Hork Bajir said, "You may now kiss the bride."

The drunken couple reached for each other, and then the podium tipped, and a blinding light flashed, and powder erupted.

"You don't care! You hate me!" I heard someone say behind me, but I ignored them and kept my eyes trained on the outline of the couple, who were now fumbling around in the powder.

I stared, forcing myself to concentrate to the point that I could just make out the Hork Bajir holding two slug-like things, one over each ear of the couple.

By the time the powder dissipated, the podium had been pulled up and the two newly made Controllers were kissing passionately.

I pulled Marco who was dragging Eamon towards the Hork Bajir and the Andalite followed us. Sidestepping the couple who had fallen over, I whispered to the Hork Bajir, "I'm here to see the Sub-Visser."

Recognition flashed into the Controller's eyes and he indicated with a claw towards the back. "Open the sliding door, and walk through the mirror at the very back."

I nodded, and the four of us brushed past the Hork Bajir.

I faced the mirror, which was probably a hologram, but stuck my hand into it just to be sure. It passed, and I swept through.

"We're like Alice in Wonderland!" Marco said in the man's deep voice, and then commented, "Whoa, that's weird my voice like this."

I ignored him. He had no clue what he was talking about.

We went down a flight of stairs, and then walked into an underground cavern that Marco told me was much smaller than the Yeerk Pool at the city. I nodded, and took a brief cursory look around, searching for someone who would stand out with authority.

"Ah, there you are, Hieseth," a voice said, and I turned to see a college girl striding towards me.

I had seen her before…

In a flash, I remembered opening Eamon's wallet to the picture of a pretty girl, the girl who was now walking towards me, and the girl who was the Sub-Visser.

Eamon's girlfriend.

Ex-girlfriend, actually, which was why he got so drunk.

Take Eamon away, I thought to Marco, and he obligingly moved away.

I nodded to the Sub-Visser and said, "You wanted to see me?"

"Yes," she told me, her hair swishing across her shoulders. This was so weird, to see a collegian in this hellish place. She was even dressed like it, with the "staples" of a khaki skirt and a black collared shirt.

"I wanted you to see the results of your new experiment," she explaining, gripping my arm as she guided me to the cages by the side, which were strangely empty, except for one. "I am very pleased with your work. You are a fine chemist."

I tried to look pleased, while my eyes roved around looking for a sign of Jake, Cassie, Tobias or Rachel. Had they made it yet?

"So far performed brain surgery on one other patient, other than your original testee," the Sub-Visser explained, and my eyes fell on _the_ original testee.

She was a seventeen-year-old girl, sitting in a chair next to an empty cage, her eyes staring blankly. She was limp, and unaware of the activity around her, and I looked at her and I knew her.

Cyndi.

"So she has aged ten years," I said, trying to sound like I knew what I was talking about.

The Sub-Visser looked at me oddly. "Yes. The other children are there." She pointed to the full cage, which held a bunch of kids aged five to eight.

"And the other patient?" I asked.

"He is being infested right now," she informed me, and I turned to look.

A boy about six years old was struggling against the Hork Bajir who held him, tears streaming down his face. I watched as his head was held under the brown sludge, and then when he got up, he was calm. A bottle was handed to him, and he held it up to drink.

"You know, it is extremely fortunate that these children become impassive after drinking the liquid," the Yeerk commented to me. "Since we are but a branch of the main invasion, it is necessary that our hosts are all voluntary, except for the Hork Bajir, which is what these cages are for." She looked at me and smiled. "And you, and your host, are especially well known for your cooperation."

I looked at her, and then at the boy, at Eamon, who was still drunk (how much did he drink?!) and at Cyndi, who still lay limp on her chair.

What was I supposed to do?

As a Nadar I would have simply started killing them all the Controllers around them, and so I reached for my dracon beam to do just that.

Tssseeeeeeer!

Tobias came soaring down, knocking the contents of the bottle to the ground.

"Andalite!" the Sub-Visser shrieked, and I turned and slugged her in the face. She fell to the ground, and just for fun, I said, "So you dumped Eamon, huh?" before I shot her with the dracon beam.

"Get the kids!" I yelled at Marco as I heard the roar of a tiger and the growl of a grizzly bear. I looked over my shoulder and also so a gray wolf in the midst of them.

Kill them all, I projected to them. They're voluntary.

A tiger reared up his head. How do you know?

The Sub-Visser just told me that because this is just a branch of the main invasion, everyone had to have voluntary hosts.

I rushed towards Cyndi, when I felt a searing pain lance across my back. I fell heavily, but rolled over and saw that a Yeerk had been aiming towards Marco but had missed and hit me instead.

"Lovely," I groaned, and then lay down on the floor, hoping to fool the others into thinking I was dead. I demorphed lying there as the children screamed from the cages as a huge gorilla approached them.

When I got up, I was a komodo dragon.

Now, a komodo dragon may look just like a big lizard, but it is not the type of lizard that you have as pet in your cage at home. Mine was a male, about ten feet, which was on the larger side, but I didn't care, the more size the more power. I had strong sharp claws intended for ripping up deer, and although I didn't have that much stamina, I was quick over short distances.

Like a Yeerk Pool.

I could see better than I could as a human, but the best part of this morph was its poisonous bacteria that left my mouth when I bit my prey, causing it to die of blood poisoning.

I was a dragon, made to strike fear in the hearts of mortals.

The awful, wonderful, terrible, amazing suspense right before a fight engulfed me, and I relished in it. To be in a fight with blood, with death, after so long of just pounding people in school…

With a snarl I ripped through the people, killing, biting, knowing that they would die from the poison, just reveling in the blood and gore – after all, I was a monster, and this form fit me.

I saw an Andalite next to me, and for a moment my dragon senses turned towards him, viewing him as a deer to eat, when I saw that flashing tail and Maya took control.

The Andalite turned towards me. You left your brother and sister behind.

I turned, and saw that Marco had made off with all the kids, but Cyndi and Eamon were still there, Eamon lying on the floor near Cyndi who still sat there like a rag doll.

I leapt backwards, only to meet a dracon blast head on. Ahhh! I cried as I jumped on my prey, tearing its head off. I started to eat, but spat it out, I'm Maya, I'm Maya, don't forget that.

But the dracon beam took its toll and I found that I was staggering almost blind, unable to hit out for fear that I would hit Cyndi or Eamon.

I squinted, and I could make out the others fighting, when another Controller blasted a dracon beam at me. I leaped at him, but the laser beam went through my body like fire. I struggled to my feet, and saw something dimly, someone aiming something at Cyndi.

No! I cried, but I couldn't get myself to move, I was going blinder, and the dracon beams had been aimed so well.

The others were busy, but…

I could barely make out the Andalite, who was the closest to me.

No. I would never call him. I would die; I would die a thousand deaths before I asked him for help.

_But you won't pay for it_, a gentle voice said in my head. _Cyndi will._

_What do you love more, Maya, your pride or your family?_

I looked at the dimming Andalite, at the Controller ready to kill Cyndi, and cried, Aximili!

He jerked his stalk eyes around, and galloping forward, lopped off the head of the Controller.

Take them please, I begged, having made my choice.

"What? What's going on? What's all that noise?" Eamon sat suddenly up, staring at the brouhaha around him.

What a time to choose to wake up.

Nothing, Eamon I told him firmly. This is a nightmare, brought on by too much drink. Go sleep it off.

He stared at me. "Who are you?"

I am part of your dream. Don't ask so many questions right now, when you'll wake up everything will be clear. Now, grab that girl and get on the blue creature's back."

My eyesight totally gone, I depended on my limiting hearing to tell that Eamon was getting up, somewhat wobbly, but doing so, and reaching for Cyndi.

"Who is she?" he asked. "She looks kinda familiar."

She is also part of your dream. Now go!

Eamon got on Aximili and then said, "I've been drunk before, but this is the weirdest hallucination I've had so far."

Dream, I said firmly, and then forcing the words out, told Aximili, Thank you.

Your welcome, he replied, before galloping off with the two of them on his back.

I returned to the fray, confident that I could tell the difference between tiger, bear, wolf and human flesh, blind or not.

**Review Responses**

Ok, this sector is closing up. I know, it was short, but the Animorphy part is not my favorite part, as I've said over and over again. Maybe one or two more chapters of this Las Vegas deal, and then onto a section about Eamon and Cyndi, and then the next Animorphy style book! I really have to update my bio with all my plans. I'll go do that as soon as I post this chapter.

Anonymous-cat – Hey, you're back! hugs A-cat I missed you! And yes, I did update quickly. I told everyone as soon as summer started, and here's the next chapter! Thanks about the mishaps – I really have to go over my writing sometime and incorporate everything. Maybe if I ever do a rewrite. And about Ax, no, I don't especially dislike Andalites. I am influenced by my characters though, so Maya disliking Ax made me not like him as much, but after it clears up with him, it'll all be good. Or hopefully so. They aren't best buds now, just because he helped her – I mean, your lifelong enemies don't become closest friends just because they did one thing for you. And sorry about the confusing names – Eamon is a senior in my school, and it was just kinda funny using his name. And I have a fun just like Rachel at my school – exactly like her, she just doesn't have blonde hair – it's actually scary how similar they are. Anyway, my friend Rachel gave me the same tips, so I incorporated them in. And Maya didn't really have trouble, but she didn't have a problem with attracting people in North Korea because Eun-hee and she stayed away from each other. And sorry about the confusion about the Hork Bajir – I mean that he was marrying the two people, not getting married. And about the origin of the Elemaki…I actually never thought of that. Elemaki comes from another book that I read – I'm so making up names for places and things that I just used this and it got stuck. But that's a really cool idea… I don't think I'm gonna do anything with it, because I have my schedule of books to stick to, which I will put up on my bio today, but anyway, that's neat – I like it!

Birdie num num – Yeah, I have a friend in school who would probably want to get married by a Hork Bajr in Las Vegas too. I'm not too fond of the idea, but hey! I've never been to Vegas!

Custardpringle – khaki, khaki, khaki – I used it right, here! Well, anyway, it shows how much I know about clothes. And the Ender series had khaki in it? Hmmm, never noticed! And send me those chapters, I'll need them soon!


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

I sank my teeth into an arm, and then moved on biting and slashing with more care. I was depending on smell and sound now, and so had to be more careful.

Maya! Tobias' thought voice called out. Behind you!

I whirled around and threw my front claw at whatever was there. It connected with a small body, and I realized as I slammed it into the wall that it was the little boy who had just been made a Controller.

Oh well. At least it meant we were accountable for one less kid.

You weren't supposed to kill him!Tobias yelled at me.

Then what was I supposed to do? Pick him up and carry him on my back? I'm blind Tobias - I thought you were warning me! I snapped back.

What the heck are you fighting for then? he asked as I spun around at the sound of harsh breathing.

I didn't answer. I wasn't sure how he'd take my answer.

They didn't know I was a Nadar, after all. They didn't even know what a Nadar was.

The fight was over quickly after that. After all, what were fifty some Controllers against a ten-foot dragon, a rearing grizzly bear, a snarling wolf and a liquid steel tiger. And a hawk.

Every single one of the Controllers lay dead.

I walked over to the smell of living flesh, and bumped into a bleeding grizzly bear.

Sorry, I said, but the bear just grunted.

I sighed, and asked, Is it safe to demorph?

They're all dead. Jake's thought-voice sounded strained.

Why? Why did we kill them all? Cassie's voice sounded with the despair that I expected it to have. Why?

They were all voluntary, I informed them. The Sub-Visser told me. And now, if you don't mind, I'm going to demorph.

Good idea. I'm gonna demorph too, Rachel said, as my bones began crunching back to their normal shape.

I looked up with normal eyes as Tobias came swooping down to rest on Rachel's shoulder.

"Careful," she warned him as she finished becoming her beautiful blonde self.

I looked out at the Yeerk pool that was about the size of a Jacuzzi.

"That's a _lot_ smaller than the Yeerk pool at our city," Rachel commented. "I wonder if there are other cities that have smaller pools like this."

What about the tourists? Cassie demanded, still in her wolf form. They weren't voluntary.

The tourists are idiots who get drunk enough so that they don't notice when they are infested while getting married. Some people deserve to get infested, I told her silently, making sure this time that I wasn't using thought-speech.

"Whoops," I answered aloud. "I didn't think of that."

"Well," Rachel said with an impatient toss of her head, "Unless we do something about this pool, they'll just come back and we'll have wasted our time here."

Jake began demorphing as well, but Cassie stayed a wolf, numbly staring at the blood around us.

We looked pretty funny, actually. Three kids in tights, one with a hawk on her shoulder and a lone wolf staring on in all the gore. Adding an Andalite and a gorilla would have made it weirder, but Aximili and Marco were somewhere else.

"Well," I started uncertainly, "We could try and boil them."

Jake looked at me. "With what?"

"Good point."

"You Andalites are human children?" a weak voice said behind us. We whirled around to see a touristy looking twenty-year-old who had my bites on him.

"Don't say anything," Jake whispered to us.

He's gonna die, I told him. I have poison in my Komodo dragon bites, and I bit him. Not to mention he's probably gonna bleed to death way before the poison kills him.

Jake stared at me for a second, and then his face lit up. "That's it!"

I stared in return. "What are you talking about?"

"Dunk your teeth into the pool. The Yeerks are porous; they need to be to suck in the nutrients from the pool. Can you spew poison into a liquid?"

I shrugged. "I can always try."

I looked back at the man but saw he had gone silent. Tossing a stray dracon beam to Rachel, I asked, "Can you go around making sure that everyone's dead? Even if just one person stays alive…"

Rachel got it. Nodding her head, she caught the dracon beam. Tobias took off, presumably to help her spot any movement.

I took a deep breath and morphed again to Komodo dragon. Moving forward, I put my mouth underwater and began churning out poison, to kill the fifty some Yeerks in the pool. I waited for about five minutes before I lifted my head, and then looked to see the Yeerks closest to me began to stop squirming in the poison filled liquid.

They were disgusting.

I demorphed, watching my poison take effect.

When I was done, I looked up at Jake who was surveying the surroundings with a hardened face. Yes, I had done that too; look at the destruction and death I had caused to harden myself to it, since it would happen again.

And Jake knew it, too.

"C'mon Cassie," he said, turning away from me. The wolf turned to look at him with blank eyes. "Let's go home." Turning to me Jake added, "Is there a way to collapse these walls?"

I looked around, surveying the structure of the cave, and said, "Not unless you want to sink the mall into it."

He shook his head. "Then we'll just seal off all the entrances."

Jake had Rachel morph to elephant and move debris to the entrances to block them up while I finished up her task of eliminating the dead or near wounded.

Tobias flew ahead to meet up with Aximili and Marco, and Jake, Cassie, who had demorphed by now, and I walked through as well. Rachel blocked up that entrance after we left, and then morphed to a roach to get through the cracks.

By the time she was done with all the morphing, she was red faced. "Ok, so now what?" she asked as we stumbled around a building shut down for "plumbing problems." It was on the outskirts of Vegas so it didn't attract as much attention as it would have downtown.

Marco was there, and so were Cyndi and Eamon, still awake, as well as Aximili.

"I dropped the kids off at a police station," Marco explained. "I told the police -"

"In thought-speech?" Jake interrupted.

"No, I just spoke using my mouth, and said I was a man in a monkey suit but it took too long for me to take it off. It took a few tries to get them to understand, but this old guy caught on pretty well. I told them that I had found them sitting in a park where I was doing an entertainment show and had assumed they were either lost or kidnapped. I was really lucky, actually – one of the policemen had a brother who had adopted one of the kids and so he knew that they were all probably missing."

"Man in a monkey suit?" Jake said with a grin.

"Shut up, I couldn't think of anything else. They all seemed pretty impressed at how realistic it was, and I told them that that was the only way to get money here. And the kids were all quiet about the Yeerk pool – none of them really could describe it accurately enough to be worried about it, and also I told the older ones – with my monkey mouth, yes – to not tell anyone, and they seemed pretty ready to do that."

"So what do we do about him?" Rachel asked, breaking into their conversation. We all turned and faced Eamon.

"Hey," he said weakly.

"Eamon," I said, "You have two choices. One is that you can shut up about this forever. Or you can die."

He looked startled at this, but then grinned. "I'm still dreaming, aren't I?"

"Yeah," I told him. "Drive us home in your dream, and then drive to school in your dream. You'll wake up fine. Going to Las Vegas is a dream."

He was pretty sober, but still a little bit drunk enough for me to pull this dream stuff on him. If he asked about it later…

I would ask Jake what to do.

"Ok," he said slowly. "Drive you home, drive back to school, and go to bed, all in my dream, and I'll wake up. And I won't tell anyone."

I nodded.

"And who is she?" he asked, pointing at Cyndi.

"One of my friends," I lied. "That's probably why she looks familiar – she's been over a couple of times. She's all doped up right now. And she also going to Stanford," I added, babbling on. "Do you mind looking after her? She's gonna be really new, so you know…"

Eamon nodded. "Ah."

He drove us home in his beat up Dodge Caravan that he had bought with the money from odd jobs throughout high school.

I sat in the back with Cyndi, so that I could warn her in case she woke up. Sure enough, she came out of her zombie like state. She sat quietly while I thought-spoke to her, explaining everything that had happened. I mentally made a note to hack into Stanford's records to create an identity for Cyndi, and then told her that.

She remained very quiet the entire time, nodding only to affirm that she understood me.

I looked away. It was obvious that the Yeerks had hurt her, and well, that was just another reason to keep fighting.

**Review Responses**

Ok, one more chapter – it's a third person chapter, a kinda wrap up with Cyndi and Eamon, and then onto the next Animorphy style book, which may or may not be longer, depends on how much I can think up. Go to my bio, I've got it all updated now, and you can see how much longer this is gonna take me. Unless of course I continue updating every day, but I'm not sure if I can keep up at this pace. Anyway, review responses! And oh yeah, I was wondering, since my library somehow lost practically all the Animorph books, if I could have **_detailed_** summaries of the following books. (Note the bold, italics and the underline.) Just email me the ones you know, and that would be really good. I'm probably never going to read them unless I run across them somewhere, so that would be really helpful. Here they are:

#12: The Reaction

#17: The Underground

#18: The Decision

#19: The Departure

#20: The Discovery

#25: The Extreme

#27: The Exposed

#28: The Experiment

#32: The Seperation

#33: The Illusion

#37: The Weakness

Megamorphs #2: In the Time of Dinosaurs

Megamorphs #3: Elfangor's Secret

Hork-Bajir Chronicles

Visser

Now, I realize that that is a lot, but it would be really helpful. Or if you can find an online version of the Animorph books, that would be even better. I've tried – that's how I found fanfiction, actually.

Now, really, **Review Responses**

**DH****L'Orange** – Here's the next chappie! I reread one of the books, because I thought I was getting out of character. That's gonna be the hardest part for me with these books. Please keep telling me if I sound off because I will need to work on that. And tension between Ax and Maya will still be there even if they are working together now. This is like my shortest ever response to one of your reviews. Wow, I'm shocked. See ya!

**Custardpringle** – ooh. It is not a hallucigenigen or whatever. I'm sorry Eamon! Oh well. And about that libel thing… I never mention his last name, so I'll think I'll be good. After all, there are bunch of curly brown haired guys with glasses… I could just randomly name one Eamon…

**Anonymous-cat **– Why did I choose the komodo dragon? Well, when I had some free time a while ago I was surfing the net for "battle animals." Not kidding. Anyway, one of them was the komodo dragon. I checked it out, and it actually fought. I had thought it was just a big looking lizard. And I also remembered in Alteranimorphs – which really sucked, by the way – that the new Animorph, ostensibly, the reader, had a komodo dragon morph in one happening, that actually was deaf to the Howler's howls. I'm not sure if I'm going to do anything with that or not, but anyway, I decided to use it because it was new, and it fought. And look at my bio for all my book info – I updated and it has _everything_.

**Tabatha**** –** you're back! And yes, I have a new story up, and yes, it's almost over. I don't except many reviews for these stories since I'm updating so fast and since it's the whole "new animorph" story thing. And sorry about the summary – I'm so bad at summaries, and I decided that this time since I didn't really expect any reviews anyway, I wasn't going to make it "tantalizing." I don't think I'll do that for any of my Animorph stories, but maybe after that. It's hard, because you have to know all the background and except for those who have stayed with me the entire time… the other don't know what I'm talking about. Anyway, here's another chapter!


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note: This chapter is written by custardpringle, a good friend of mine. She wrote her own disclaimer, but I think I need to explain it.  
  
This is all custardpringle's fault. If you happen to be a psychoanalyst, and you suspect severe mental problems on the part of the author, they are entirely custardpringle's. Korean Pearl is completely sane. (At least, custardpringle hopes so, because Korean Pearl is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.)  
  
[Il faut dire que cette partie de l'histoire est toute la faute de custardpringle. Si vous etes psychoanalyste et vous croyes que j'aie mal a la tete, vous pouvez avoir raison, mais Korean Pearl est tout d'accord. (A moins, custardpringle espere ainsi, car Korean Pearl peut quelquefois etre tres violente.) Et, s'il vous plait, excusez ma francais, qui est sans doute terrible.]  
  
Chapter 7:  
  
Cyndi stopped, her heart racing as she remembered Maya's order to not tell Eamon anything about what had happened until Maya told her to.  
  
So it was only reluctantly that she moved an instant away before her lips met Eamon's. "Eamon..." She hesitated. "I need to tell you something."  
  
Hearing the grave tone in her voice, he sobered instantly. "What's wrong?"  
  
She found herself no longer able to meet his eyes, and instead glanced down at their still-twined hands. "You told me you had a sister named Cyndi," she said quietly. "Same as me."  
  
"Yeah." A small, puzzled smile flickered across his face. "What about her?"  
  
There was no going back now, no matter what Maya said. Cyndi gulped. "I am her. Or, more precisely -" Eamon's eyebrows were well on their way upward – "I used to be her."  
  
The smile was back. "You're telling me," He said incredulously, "that you're my seven-year-old little sister who's probably at home watching cartoons right now. This is a joke, right?"  
  
"I'm not your sister," Cyndi answered, almost eerily calm. "We're both adopted. You didn't even want me there at first – when I first moved in, I was three and you were fifteen, and you were so pissed off at having another sibling that you locked yourself in your room for a week, remember?"  
  
He shook his head obstinately, but uncertainty was rapidly creeping into his voice. "You've been talking to my mother somehow, haven't you? She could've told you that."  
  
"But she didn't," she responded. "She didn't have to, because I was there. Eamon, haven't you wondered why she hasn't let you speak to me for the past two months? Did you really think I'd be at a slumber party on a Wednesday night?"  
  
"But -" He looked almost frightened now. Their eyes met again, and this time she could tell he believed her – barely. "Cyndi – this is insane. What happened to you?"  
  
He disengaged his hand gently from hers, and raised it to touch her face briefly – but it was the touch of a brother, not a boyfriend, and she could feel that side of their relationship slipping away. She closed her eyes against both the present and the remembered pain, and told him – leaving out as much of the unpleasantness as possible – what had been done to her. All the time, her mind screamed: Please, Eamon, do something. Take my hand again... put your arms around me... just do something, anything, so I'll know things are okay between us.  
  
But he did nothing, only sat and looked at her through the entire story. "This is insane," he repeated finally, and swallowed hard. "I need – I need to go think about this for a while. I mean -" he hesitated, and looked up. "I thought that was a dream. Maya was in it, and so were you, but... I thought I was drunk."  
  
Cyndi shook her head, whispering, "You weren't." She then caught his arm as he got up to leave. "You know... we can still go out, right? There'd be nothing wrong with it – we aren't actually siblings."  
  
"I don't know," he told her sadly, and disappeared into the twilight; for the first time she noticed that it was beginning to get dark out.  
  
Cyndi sat there, motionless, for a while longer, until the memory of an incomplete English paper drove her back to her dorm room. No one saw her tears; they were well hidden by the gathering dusk.  
  
----------------------------  
  
They could quite probably have gone on keeping out of each other's ways for the rest of their lives, were it not for the unfortunate intervention of midterms, closely followed by a month of winter vacation. Still, despite taking the same bus home, being met by the same (adoptive) mother and being driven home to the same house, they managed not to converse at all with each other for several days. Maya found out that Cyndi had told Eamon early, and remained upset with the seventeen-year-old although the rest of the family simply expressed concern at their silence. Both Eamon and Cyndi denied that there was anything wrong, and their near indifference to each other lasted until Christmas Eve rolled around, as it tends to do each year at or around December 24th.  
  
Eamon found himself having trouble sleeping that night; despite his best efforts to ignore it, the issue with Cyndi had been keeping him awake more and more often lately. He had, quite frankly, no idea what to do about his relationship with her, an dafter about half an hour of dejected contemplation he decided the best thing for all concerned would be for him to go to the kitchen and drink a glass of milk. At the top of the stairs, though, he paused outside her door and listened. He could've sworn he'd heard –  
  
There it was again, a small, choked scream. She was crying out in her sleep. Something was very, very wrong.  
  
He pushed the door open gingerly, went in, and stood watching her for a few seconds. She had fallen silent for the moment, but was still moving restlessly, and as he came closer she let out another small whimper.  
  
Her long hair had fallen to one side, and as he sat down gingerly on the edge of the bed he gasped softly. Just behind her exposed ear, the dim moonlight revealed something that should not have been there: a pattern of raised dots (burn scars, some vague intuition whispered) that he didn't recognize, but which an unpleasant resemblance to some kind of alien numbers.  
  
A serial number.  
  
It all clicked then: he knew exactly what had happened, what she hadn't told him – and what she was dreaming about right now.  
  
"Cyndi," he called urgently, shaking her gently. "Cyndi, wake up... please."  
  
She sat up abruptly with a small frightened yelp, but he kept a firm grip on her shoulders and eventually she focused enough to recognize him. "Eamon?" she said hesitantly, and an instant later began to tremble violently. "I didn't – I didn't want you to know..."  
  
He reached out and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tightly until she stopped shaking. "What happened?"  
  
Cyndi took in a deep, shuddering breath. "Nothing much." Her voice was stronger now, bitter. "But when you're getting an inch or two taller every day, it gets just a little uncomfortable, you know? And this -" she touched the scar behind her ear – "had to be done five times before it was permanent. After that, the occasional beating wasn't really that bad. I suppose it kept the Yeerks distracted from anything worse they might've done.  
  
"I guess so," Eamon said uncertainly, and then pulled away slightly so he could look directly at her. "Why didn't you tell me before?"  
  
"I try not to think about it," she answered, eyes downcast. "Besides, the way you reacted – I didn't think you'd care."  
  
"Oh..." he whispered very softly, remembering his less-than-sympathetic responses. "I'm sorry, Cyndi. It's just -" He groped for words. "It scared me."  
  
Cyndi said nothing, waiting for him to continue.  
  
Eamon swallowed. "I do care, I do, and I'm really sorry you thought otherwise..." At this point the English language failed him entirely.  
  
He settled instead for kissing her gently on the lips, and this time she did not pull away.  
  
When they did separate, a few seconds later, she simply smiled and said, "Thanks."  
  
"You're welcome," Eamon said more soberly, and gently released her. "I'd better go back to bed... if Mom wakes up and sees I'm in here I don't know what she's gonna think."  
  
"All right," Cyndi agreed regretfully.  
  
"Are you going to be okay?"  
  
She nodded, slowly, but with certainty. "I think so... are you?"  
  
"What?" Already halfway to the door, he stopped and looked back at her in confusion, then understood. "Yeah, I am."  
  
"Well, then, goodnight," she told him, and rolled over, asleep within an instant.  
  
"Goodnight," he answered, although she couldn't hear him, and made sure to close the door carefully before continuing down the stairs to the kitchen.  
  
Review Responses  
  
Yeah, this one was shorter, but it was a final wrappy thing. I'm gonna post the next one up, I don't know when, but I have it written, I just need time and access to the internet.  
  
DH L'Orange – I read your review, and yes, everything you pointed out is perfectly right. Therefore, I was wondering – I know you're really busy, but still – if you could beta my Animorphy type books before I upload them. That way I could get your input before I put it up and so won't be between rewriting it and leaving it as it is. I looked for your email on your bio, but couldn't find it, so if you could email me – jessicajessejesshotmail.com – and tell me if you could beta them before I update, that would be so nice of you. Thanks!  
  
Tabatha – don't worry, I'll be waiting! I'm gonna keep updating as much as I can, so they'll be lots of chappies. Glad you liked the komodo dragon morph!  
  
Anonymous-cat – Did Ax try talking as a monkey? Which book? I might not have read that book, which is why I put that part in. I just thought it made sense since humans are similar to monkeys. And yeah, at least Maya is going to do some more killing. I went overboard with the others, but I'll try and bring them back to character in my later books. And thanks so much for the detailed descriptions – I will be going there!  
  
Hey – sorry!  
  
g21l20 – There will be more tension between Ax and Maya, don't worry! And it's ok about Nadar II – they'll be a lot more chapters to review later!  
  
Naric – confused... writer gift? Anyway, it's ok, I'll keep writing so that you'll have lots of stuff to look forward to back from Canada!  
  
Custardpringle – as you can see, I added some stuff just to make it make more sense with my story, other than that, it's the same. And also, what was with not sending it? I typed it all up, and then checked my email, and there it was. Arrgh. Oh well, here it is! 


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